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Game 1 in Review: Celtics 87, Knicks 85

It was said best by a friend of mine– perhaps the most physical game of the year in the NBA was decided by a touch foul on Carmelo Anthony. For being a superstar, Melo sure doesn’t get treated like one by the referees. Sure there were some bonehead plays by NY, combined with the genius of Doc Rivers, but the Knicks played well enough to win this game. The defensive gameplan was actually logical tonight (the fact that there even WAS a gameplan is a plus), and NY took Rondo offensively out of the game by Billups forcing him to shoot the outside jumper or dish it. There were a number of questionable calls in favor of Boston, including the absence the calls for the Knicks. The final foul on Melo was the icing on the cake for me, the fact that they could end a playoff game because of Carmelo trying to get his arm free from Pierce so he could catch the ball. Also upon review, it looks as though Melo got fouled on the final shot of the game. Billups was fouled by Jermaine O’Neal going to the hole in one of the final possessions and no call was made.

Walt Frazier said it best following the game after he expressed his disappointment with some of the lack of calls, “You’re not gonna get any of those calls on the road against Boston.” Frankly that doesn’t sound right. Boston will always make the big shot, especially against NY, and the Knicks need to be ready for a physical series. I really thought was D’Antoni’s best post-game press conference, and I agreed with just about everything he said (for once). Don’t worry Knicks fans… we’ll be back on Tuesday. If we can grab 1 in Boston that would be a big victory with momentum heading into New York on Friday for Game 3.

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Good article here by Ian O’Connor for ESPN NY. I think D’Antoni HAS to do a better job in designing a play that gets Amare the basketball. He did a poor job controlling his superstar (MELO) during the final minutes of the game, allowing Carmelo to launch an endless array of terrible shots adding to his horrible shooting performance.

Amare was called out by Big Baby and delivered a tremendous offensive performance most of the night. However, when the time called for his coach to design a play to get him the ball, his coach claims that he was “draped by Garnett”. The same Garnett who was getting schooled by Amare earlier in the game. The fact is, Amare should have been “the man” in the final minutes of the game – not Carmelo.